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Sunday, July 18, 2004 Reading and Anime Update What Einstein Told His Cook: Kitchen Science Explained by Robert L. Wolke. If you want to find out the science behind cooking without being bored to tears this book does a fine job. Wolke's writing is witty and entertaining except for one fatal flaw (or perhaps virtue depending on how you look at it)--it's written for the great unwashed masses. I mean, I appreciate the play with words, but I sort of felt like I was being talked down to. Perhaps that was just my own impression; I'm not exactly the book's target audience. If you think warm water takes longer to boil than cold water, though, this is just the book for you. Not only can you find out why the fats on the nutrition label don't add up, but also why there are holes in crackers, how vinegar is made, why your thermometer won't explode if you place it against the bone of the bird you've stuck in the oven the last four hours, and why you won't get cooked if you stand next to the microwave. Other reading: I swear I'm trying to finish the other books as fast as possible. It's just those darn science journals getting in the way again. Yami no Matsuei (Descendents of Darkness) is what some people would call shoujo anime (anime aimed for girls) despite all the male main characters, numerous female victims, and tons of violence. Perhaps all of this would immediately earn a negative review from me, right? Ah, well no. By the last episode, I found myself strangely feeling reluctant that it was ending so soon. I mean, the bad guy somehow got out alive--who doesn't want to know what he's planning next? The premise is that the afterlife consists of a bureaucracy which processes souls after people have died. Sometimes, though, people die from unforeseen circumstances--i.e. murder--and the Shinigami or gods of death are called in to investigate. So in a way, this anime can be viewed as a series of murder mysteries except that we already knew who did it. Actually, that was pretty much the only thing I found annoying: there were points in the story where things couldn't be made any more obvious. Tsuzuki Asato is one of the Shinigami who in addition to being a ditz with a sweet tooth is the most powerful of the gods of death. But despite his easy going attitude, he has a hard time keeping a partner. The first episode introduces Tsuzuki's latest partner Kurosaki Hisoka, a moody teenager who died under mysterious circumstances. The villain is the psycho-serial killer-doctor Muraki Kazutaka who likes to claim that all the murders were done for "research". A major part of the story deals with the relationships between these characters which is more like shounen-ai between bishounen than your typical western buddy cops and cartoony villain. It can get quite dark at times, but it's not a total angst-fest; it's occasionally punctuated with humor. But if you're the type of person who's squeamish and conservative about blood and same-sex themes, you might want to skip on this one. Unconscious Mutterings
[posted by S. Y. Affolee on 6:02 AM : ]
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